About the Participants

Brendon Elliott, The Juilliard School & Sphinx Laureate

Violinist Brendon Elliott has been making a name for himself with outstanding performances throughout the United States and Europe. He has been described as an accomplished performer who “plays with substantial sound and a lovely feeling of warmth” by the Richmond Times and as "Playing with grace and poise, displaying a fine technique and sweet tone," by Charleston Courier.

He began to play the violin at the age three under the tutelage of his mother. By age ten had already made his solo orchestra début with the Hampton University Orchestra. He is a two-time alumni of National Public Radio’s “From the Top”, has toured with the Virginia Symphony performing alongside the legendary Natalie Cole, and also guest soloed with the Richmond Symphony Orchestra.

A graduate of The Curtis Institute of Music and The Juilliard School. His teachers have included Ronald Copes Pamela Frank Sylvia Rosenberg and the late Joseph Silverstein. He is currently a fellow at the New World Symphony.

Nathan Lowry, the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University

Violinist Nathan Lowry is a rising performer of contemporary music, aspiring to realize living composers' works while also exploring recent, underrepresented gems in the repertoire. Passionate about solo and chamber performance, Nathan has enjoyed wide successes with audiences in many motley venues, from Harris Recital Hall in Aspen, Colorado, to the Bruton Parish Episcopal Church in Williamsburg, Virginia. Nathan is originally from Nashville, Tennessee, having grown up involved with the Blair School of Music's precollege music program as a Myra Jackson Scholar.

An avid contemporary performer, Nathan currently holds a fellowship position with the Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, having performed numerous recent works by contemporary titans as well as premiering works by imminent young composers under the batons of Donald Crockett and Timothy Weiss in the 2018 summer season. Nathan also acted as first violinist for the 2017-2018 Indiana University New Music Ensemble led by David Dzubay, working with leading composers such as Augusta Read Thomas, Kate Soper, and Gabriela Ortiz. In the summer of 2018, Nathan traveled with NME to Mexico City, holding an inaugural concert at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México as part of Indiana University's Mexico City gateway opening. Additionally, Nathan has participated in a program with Houston-based new music collective Loop38 as part of their 2019-2020 concert season. For this coming summer, Nathan plans to return to Aspen as an ACE fellow.

Passionate about chamber music, Nathan was a founding member of the Aurelius String Quartet, a group formed by students at the Blair School, and the fellowship quartet in residence of the 2016 Wintergreen Music Festival season. Having received 2nd prize in the 2016 MTNA National Chamber Competition in San Antonio, Texas, the Aurelius Quartet has had many diverse successes as a performing ensemble, including a concert tour across the state of Virginia as part of the Wintergreen festival, as well as a highly publicized cross-over concert with Indie violinist Kishi Bashi at Belly Up! in Aspen, Colorado. They have also participated in collaborations with several composers, including Royal Academy of Music's David Gorton. Nathan has received chamber music instruction from members of the Blair, American, Pacifica, and Axelrod Quartets.

As a soloist, Nathan made his concerto debut at the 2011 Eastern Music Festival as a concerto competition winner, an honor he would receive the following 2012 season as well. Nathan has also soloed with the Curb Youth Symphony, as well as the Paducah Symphony Orchestras. During his studies at Vanderbilt University, Nathan was the recipient of the Jean Keller Award for excellence in string performance and was the inaugural recipient of the Christian Teal Award for collaboration. Nathan has had the opportunity in masterclasses to work with several leading musicians, including Ani Kavafian, Noah Bendix-Balgley, Glenn Dicterow, Mauricio Fuks, Almita Vamos, Ronald Copes, Stefan Jackiw, and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenburg.

During his summers, Nathan has attended numerous summer festivals, including the Aspen Music Festival and School and Eastern Music Festival. Nathan has held concertmaster and principal second positions at both the Colorado College Music Festival as well as Eastern Music Festival, where he had the additional honor of performing the concertmaster solos of Richard Strauss' ​Ein Heldenleben.​ Other leadership roles have included concertmaster of the Vanderbilt University orchestra, as well as principal positions with the Evansville Philharmonic and Owensboro Symphony Orchestras. Nathan has worked with many distinguished conductors, including Leonard Slatkin, Gerard Schawrz, Robert Spano, Vasily Petrenko, Victor Yampolsky, and Scott Yoo.

Nathan received his Bachelor of Music degree from Vanderbilt University's Blair School of Music, under the tutelage of Christian Teal and Carolyn Huebl. He earned his Master in Music from Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music, where he studied under violinist Alex Kerr. Nathan is currently pursuing his Artist Diploma with Paul Kantor at Rice University's Shepherd of Music.

Jun Liu, the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University

Jun Liu is a freshman at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music studying violin performance under the tutelage of Paul Kantor. She previously studied violin under Heghine Boloyan with a scholarship generously awarded by the Discovery Scholarship Foundation since the age of 5. Jun has received recognition by several competitions, such as the 2019 Pacific Musical Society Competition, the 2018 ASTA San Francisco Solo competition, and a semi-finalist in the 2019 Mondavi Competition. She was a member of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra from 2015 to 2018. Jun has also participated in several summer music festivals including the Northwestern Summer Violin Institute, Domaine Forget, and Madeline Island Chamber Music program. Jun has performed in masterclasses led by Noah Bendix Balgley, Yo-Yo Ma, Danielle Belen, the Emerson Quartet, Juilliard Quartet, St. Lawrence String Quartet, Fry Street Quartet, Catalyst Quartet, and many more.

Jun is also an active chamber musician. Her quartet, The Meraki quartet was awarded the bronze medal at the Junior Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition, second at the Yehudi Menuhin Chamber Music Seminar, and has appeared on NPR’s From the Top. The group has performed in the Old First and Fifth Street Farms concert series in the Bay Area and was also part of the San Francisco Performances series where they performed alongside the Alexander String Quartet.

Megan Martono, the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University

Violinist Megan Martono is quickly establishing herself as a musician of versatility and breadth. She recently performed as soloist with the Pacific Symphony Orchestra at Segerstrom Center for the Arts for the second consecutive year, and performed multiple solo concerts at Royal Albert Hall and Philharmonie de Paris in April 2019.

Ms. Martono previously served as Concertmaster of the Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra, Concertmaster of the Aliso Niguel Chamber Orchestra, Principal at the Orange County School of the Arts Symphony Orchestra, Concertmaster of Capistrano Unified School District’s Honor Orchestra, and Concertmaster of the Classical to Rock Orchestra. Ms. Martono is also a prizewinner for numerous festivals and competitions such as the Bellflower Concerto Competition, the Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition, the Grand Prize Virtuoso International Music Competition, the Southern California Philharmonic Concerto Competition, the Satori String Competition, and more. She has performed in notable venues such as the Royal Albert Hall, Philharmonie de Paris, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Segerstrom Center for the Arts, Soka Performing Arts Center, and the St. Petersburg Glinka Capella Hall. Ms. Martono was invited to perform as soloist with the Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra and the Bellflower Symphony Orchestra in May of 2020, and was scheduled to perform as concertmaster of the Pacific Symphony Youth Orchestra in a concert tour to Vienna and Prague during summer of 2020.

Ms. Martono is currently a first-year Undergraduate student at the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University. She studies under the tutelage of Paul Kantor, who continues the pedagogical lineage of Dorothy Delay. She previously attended the Orange County School of the Arts, and was a full scholarship-recipient of Chamber Music | OC’s Pre-College Program from 2017-2020. During the summer of 2019, she attended the Aspen Music Festival and studied under Masao Kawasaki and Paul Kantor. Ms. Martono has appeared in masterclasses with artists including Robert McDonald, Julian Martin, Peter Zazofsky, Richard O'Neill, Espen Lilleslaten, and Virginia Weckstrom. Previous violin teachers and chamber coaches include Cho Liang Lin, Jeanne Fischer, Iryna Krechkovsky, Kevin Kwan Loucks, Renata Arado, and Ross Gasworth.

In her free time, Ms. Martono enjoys teaching violin and piano, exploring the world of fashion, and scouting for new restaurants and sights.